Norwich police officer saves resident trapped by fire

The sound of a smoke alarm woke Antoine Damas early Friday morning as he lay sleeping inside his apartment at 56 N. Main Street in Norwich.

John Penney

The sound of a smoke alarm woke Antoine Damas early Friday morning as he lay sleeping inside his apartment at 56 N. Main Street in Norwich.

“I opened the kitchen door, but I could only seen smoke and fire,” Damas, 61, said. “Then I opened a window and was getting ready to jump.”

Before Damas could leap from his second-floor residence, he saw Norwich Police Department Officer Sean Sullivan several feet below him.

“He told me to stay and then he burst through the door and told me to follow him,” said Damas, who works at a local Walmart. “But I couldn’t see which way to go. He held my hand and led me out.”

Sgt. Patrick Mickens said Sullivan joined the Norwich department three years ago after working for years as a police officer in South Carolina.

“He’s a 19-year veteran of law enforcement and a solid officer,” Mickens said. “He was on patrol when he observed smoke coming from the upstairs floor and a man yelling for help. He was able to open a door and, using his flashlight, escorted the resident out.”

Norwich fire units were called to the blue, two-story apartment at 3:53 a.m. Battalion Chief Greg Despathy said. When they arrived, crews found a fire had erupted in the rear of the building, he said.

The fire was under control by 4:01 a.m. There were no injuries. A portion of Route 12 was shut down for about an hour, but was re-opened shortly after the fire was extinguished.

“Everything worked perfectly last night,” Norwich Fire Chief Kenneth Scandariato said. After Sullivan reported seeing the smoke, it took firefighters two minutes to arrive and six minutes to put out the fire, the chief said.

The apartment is not habitable, but it can be repaired, Scandariato said, and the fire was put out so quickly that there was no water damage.

Scandariato, who also is the Norwich fire marshal, said it appears the fire was accidental, caused by an electrical problem in the kitchen area.